


I Missed You

by fandomsnstuff



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: BECAUSE THEY ARE, Canon Compliant, Fluff, Gen, Hugs, It's implied that lance and keith are crushing, M/M, but they don't actually get together in this, it's just them being Soft together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-12
Updated: 2018-03-12
Packaged: 2019-03-30 04:59:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13943097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fandomsnstuff/pseuds/fandomsnstuff
Summary: Lance misses Keith, Keith misses everyone, and the red lion figures she can do something about it.





	I Missed You

**Author's Note:**

> Here's some Good Boys being Sad but also Hugging

Lance was bored. He felt just about ready to start banging his head against a wall, he had nothing else to do. 

 

You would think that living in close proximity with five of his closest friends would render Lance unable to be bored, but he was. He was so unbelievably bored. 

 

Hunk and Pidge were getting more and more wrapped up in tinkering and experimenting as time went on. New technology meant new information and as much as Lance loved them and supported them, he could only listen to them talking over each other about confusing alien technology for so long. They threw around words and phrases that just got all jumbled in his head, and he didn’t have anyone to stew in mutual confusion with, so he decided to leave them to it. 

 

Allura and Coran were busy doing princess-y and advisor-y things. The Blades were coming to visit after they finished up some super-secret mission. Due to the secrecy the Blades held, they didn’t actually know when they were coming, so Allura and Coran wanted to get all the necessary information for the meeting sorted out quickly. The information was in altean, so Lance was no use to them, and his presence would just be a distraction. He moved on. 

 

The doors to the training deck slid open and Lance was disappointed to find Shiro already there. He had been strangely aggressive lately, so Lance opted out of asking to train with him and having his ass kicked and getting yelled at over and over again for getting his ass kicked. 

 

Frankly, he didn’t even care what Lotor was doing, he was  _ not  _ an option for keeping Lance occupied. 

 

It was times like these where Lance missed Keith the most. Granted, he missed him every day, all the time, but if he was able to keep himself busy, his feelings would fall to the back of his mind. When he was left alone with nothing to do, he longed for Keith to walk through the door, to come home. It was those moments where Lance felt like he was the only one missing Keith. He knew he was wrong and that everybody missed him and it was selfish of him to think like that, but Lance felt a twinge in his heart every time he saw the empty chair at the dinner table, or when he made a perfect pun that wasn’t followed by a sharp retaliation. 

 

Lance flopped into the pilot’s seat of the red lion with a huff. He slouched down and let out a dejected sigh, staring up at the interior of the lion. He felt Red’s sympathetic purr in the back of his mind, “I miss him, Red. Why’d he have to leave?” 

 

Another soft purr. She missed him as much as he did. 

 

“It’s selfish of me for wanting him to come back. He wants to learn more about his Galra heritage and who am I to take that away from him?” 

 

A growl.  _ You’re not selfish. Everyone wants him home.  _

 

Lance put his elbow up on the armrest and rested his cheek on his fist, “I know, but you don’t see everyone moping around about it. Just me.” 

 

_ He is your friend, your family. It is natural that you want him home. I’ve said it once, I’ll say it one million times, don’t be so hard on yourself.  _

 

Lance huffed a laugh, “okay, thanks,  _ mom. _ ” 

 

Lance took a deep breath and closed his eyes, feeling another calming purr in the back of his mind. He joked, but Red sometimes did feel like a mother to him. A strange, mechanical, semi-sentient, alien robot lion mom, but a mom nonetheless. He sat there in silence, the presence of his lion buzzing in the back of his mind, imagining the day Keith came back to Voltron. 

 

After an indiscernible amount of time, Red came back to the forefront of his mind. 

 

_ Someone’s here.  _

 

Lance sat up properly in his seat and looked out the front window. He expected to see Hunk or Pidge, possibly sent to get him for dinner. But instead of a bright yellow shirt, or small green gremlin, he saw dark armour with lines of purple on the chest and a hood pulled over dark hair, framing a pale face. 

 

“Keith,” Lance breathed. 

 

Keith stopped in between her front two paws and stared up at the inactive lion. Lance jumped when a small screen on his dash lit up in his peripheral vision. There was nothing on it except some altean script and a flat line running right through the middle. 

 

“Hi Mama,” Keith’s voice came from the screen and the flat line moved with it, “I missed you.” 

 

There was a beat of silence. Lance stared at the moving line as it flattened out again, then out the window at Keith. 

 

“I missed everyone, actually. But I think if I told them that, Hunk would start crying, and Coran would cry, and Pidge would cry, and Lance would pretend like he wasn’t about to cry, and everyone else crying would make me want to cry and I’m not sure I’d be able to leave again.” He laughed sadly and Lance almost missed the quick swipe of Keith’s hand under his eyes, “The Blades are okay, I guess. My time with them has been...interesting. Not the best, not the worst. I met my mom. Like, the one who actually gave birth to me.” 

 

Lance’s eyes widened.  _ “He met his mom?”  _ He thought to himself. 

 

“She thinks I should come back.” A pause. “I really want to come home, Mama.” 

 

_ Then come home.  _ Lance heard Red comment back.

 

Keith must have heard it too, he replied, “I can’t.” 

 

_ Yes, you can.  _

 

He huffed, “no, I can’t. They don’t need me. Shiro’s piloting the black lion, and he’s a much better leader than I am. And I don’t want to take you away from Lance, he deserves to be a paladin over me.” 

 

“You’re staying away because of me?” Lance commented aloud. 

 

Keith froze, staring up at the red lion with wide eyes, “L-Lance?” 

 

Lance’s posture stiffened. His eyes traveled over the dashboard, only to notice that right next to the screen allowing him to hear Keith’s voice, the outgoing mic had also been turned on. 

 

Red shifted her head down and opened the hatch for Lance to get out of the cockpit.  _ Ha, ha, busted. Now talk to him.  _ She said to him. 

 

He stumbled down the ramp towards a scarlet-faced Keith, already rushing to explain. “Keith, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to listen in, I was just already in Red and she turned on the mic so I could hear, and-” 

 

“It’s fine.” Keith interrupted, “I...I don’t mind. It’s okay.” 

 

Lance licked his lips, “are you sure?” 

 

Keith nodded, staring at the floor with his arms crossed. 

 

Lance watched him for a moment before speaking up, “are you really staying away because of me?” 

 

“What?” Keith looked up at him. 

 

“Before, you said you didn’t want to take Red away from me. That that’s why you haven’t come back to the team yet.” 

 

Keith bit his lip. “It’s...kind of why I left.” 

 

Lance’s heart sank, not only was he the reason Keith was staying away, now he was also the reason he left. It’s all his fault. Everything’s his fault. 

 

“You were worried about who was going to fly what lion when Shiro came back. Then the black lion wouldn’t let him pilot, but I didn’t want to be leader. I didn’t like being the leader. I wasn’t good at it. So I kind of...made it so the black lion had to take Shiro back. I pulled away from the team. But I didn’t want to try and take Red back because I knew you wouldn’t try and take Blue from Allura, and you’re a great paladin. So I just...ran. It made things easier.” 

 

Lance shoved his hands into his pockets and looked down, “I liked having you as the leader.” 

 

Keith snorted, “I was the worst leader, Lance. Remember that time I almost got us all killed because I’m impulsive and I wanted to chase Lotor?” 

 

The corner of Lance’s mouth quirked up in half a smile, “well, yeah, maybe at first, but you listened to me when I told you what you were doing wrong. We got the team to work together. We all made decisions together.” Lance looked up to meet Keith’s eyes, “I liked being your right hand man.” 

 

“What about Shiro? He’s better than me at people, and plans, and teams, all that stuff.” 

 

Lance averted his eyes again and clenched his fists inside his pockets, his eyebrows furrowing, “not anymore he’s not.” 

 

Keith looked at him, confused. He dropped his arms to his sides, “what are you talking about?” 

 

“He’s been so aggressive lately. He doesn’t listen to any of us anymore, he says that he’s the leader, so he makes the decisions. We don’t get any say in anything. He even snapped at Pidge the other day.” 

 

Keith’s eyes widened, “he snapped at Pidge? But she’s his favourite, he would never get mad at her!” 

 

“I know, I just, there’s something up with him. I think...” 

 

“You think what?” 

 

Lance shook his head, “nevermind. What are you doing here? Isn’t there some meeting with the Blade right now?” 

 

Keith shrugged, “Kolivan said I wasn’t needed for the meeting, so he sent me off until they’re done. I was kind of hoping to run into you, but I felt Red calling to me, so I decided to come talk to her.” 

 

“Killed two birds with one stone, then.” 

 

Keith chuckled, “yeah, I guess.” His eyes met Lance’s and Keith’s face grew soft, “I really missed you, Lance.” 

 

Lance felt his heart flutter in his chest and he bit back the sudden tears he could feel stinging the corner of his eyes. Unable to hold himself back any longer, he reached forward and pulled Keith into a tight hug. He felt Keith stiffen in his arms at the sudden movement, but soon enough Keith relaxed against him and circled his arms around Lance, burying his face in the crook of Lance’s neck. Lance leaned his head against Keith’s, “I missed you, too.” 

 

They stood there in silence, wrapped up in each other’s presence and warmth after months of being apart. Lance relished in the tickle of Keith’s hair against his neck and cheek and the steady rise and fall of his chest as he breathed. It was a reminder that he was there, even just for the time being. He was alive, he could still come home. 

 

“Keith?” 

 

“Hmm?” Keith hummed against Lance’s neck. 

 

“Do you seriously call the red lion ‘Mama’?” 

 

There was a purr.  _ Obviously. Weren’t you paying attention?  _

 

Lance could feel Keith’s smile. “Yeah, it felt appropriate. She looked out for me. Wanted to keep me safe, gave me advice. All this stuff that I imagined a mother would do.” 

 

“Are you still going to call her Mama? Even though you found your real mom?” 

 

“Yeah. Since the start of this whole thing, Red’s been a steady force for me. Even when I had to switch to the black lion. Krolia...she still has a lot to make up for.” 

 

“Krolia?” 

 

“Yeah. You can meet her one day. You’re going to hate her hair.” 

 

Lance laughed, squeezing Keith a little tighter, “I guess bad hair runs in the family.” 

 

Keith hummed, “maybe so.” 

 

Their conversation fell quiet for another minute. 

 

“Keith?” 

 

“Yeah?” 

 

“Come home.” 

 

Keith sighed and pulled back, still keeping his arms around Lance. “Lance, we’ve already had this conversation. I-” 

 

“I know, you don’t want to take Red away, but what if you didn’t?” 

 

“Wha-” 

 

“We could co-pilot. We can alternate each mission, or decide depending on what the mission calls for.” 

 

“But what would I tell the Blade?” 

 

“They went ten thousand years without you and, honestly,” Lance sighed, “I don’t think the Blade is good for you.” 

 

Keith tilted his head, “what do you mean?” 

 

“I know it’s not my place to decide what’s good or bad for you but...Matt told me what happened. How you almost flew into that barrier.” Keith inhaled sharply. Lance continued, “it’s the only reason I was able to stand having Lotor around. Because I knew he was the reason you didn’t do it.” 

 

“Lance, I…the Blades...” Keith exhaled, “the mission is more important than the individual.” 

 

Lance was taken aback. He stared at Keith. “That’s what they told you?”

 

Keith nodded. 

 

Lance scoffed, “that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. With no individual, there’s no mission.” Lance’s voice softened and he pulled Keith against him again, “we all want you to live, Keith. I don’t care what ideology the Blade has been trying to drill into your head, you’re important. You’re wanted. You’re  _ needed. _ ” 

 

Keith’s hands clutched at the back of Lance’s jacket. “I think I need you more than you need me.” 

 

“We all need you here, Keith. I need you here. I want you here.” He pressed his forehead to the top of Keith’s hair, “come home.” 

 

Lance could feel the deep breath Keith took. “Okay. Okay. I’ll...I’m going to discuss it with Kolivan. I want to come home.” 

 

Lance and Keith held on to each other like it was the end of the world, standing alone in the middle of the red lion’s hangar. Both of them had tears pricking at their eyes and the weight of the world on their shoulders. But together, the weight of the world wasn’t so heavy. 

 

Both of them felt a soft, warming presence in their minds.  _ You’re welcome.  _

 

They both pulled away slightly from their hug to look up at Red. Keith smiled softly, “thank you, Mama.” 

 

“Yeah,” Lance said, “thanks, Mom.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Keith calls the red lion Mama and anyone who disagrees can fight me


End file.
